BELLEVILLE -- Alton Memorial Hospital is facing a wrongful death lawsuit after a widowed husband alleges the medical facility failed to discover his wife’s breast cancer after a mammogram.
Rick Hagen, administrator for the estate of Lorna R. Hagen, filed the lawsuit Aug. 8 on behalf of his wife in St. Clair County Circuit Court. He also named Dr. Bradley William Stockmann along with Midwest Radiological Associates PC.
In his complaint, Hagen noted that his wife passed away in early June and he is suing through the Illinois Wrongful Death Statute and Illinois Survival Statute.
In December 2017, the suit alleges, Stockmann performed a mammogram for Lorna Hagen. At the time, he worked for Midwest Radiological Associates and “assumed the care of Lorna R. Hagen for the performance and interpretation of a mammogram,” according to the complaint.
The lawsuit states Lorna Hagen realized she had breast cancer Aug. 27, 2018, and “she neither knew, nor by the exercise of reasonable care, could have known of her injury and its wrongful cause before that date.”
Ultimately, Rick Hagen alleges the defendants and/or related parties misinterpreted the mammogram performed in late 2017. The lawsuit alleges Lorna Hagen's husband and her children have been deprived from her presence and had to pay medical expenses related to her illness.
Rick Hagen seeks judgment in excess of $75,000, plus court costs. He is represented by attorney Samantha Unsell of Keefe, Keefe & Unsell PC in Belleville.
St. Clair County Circuit Court Case number 19-L-0566